Shining Sea

"Shortly after the outbreak of the War of 1812, Captain David Porter set out at the helm of the USS Essex, intent on rounding Cape Horn and hunting British whaling and merchant ships in the Pacific Ocean. Porter's odyssey took him to exotic isles and brought glory to the fledgling American navy, and in The Shining Sea, celebrated historian George C. Daughan tells the full story of this historic voyage for the first time. Porter's cruise is now regarded as the greatest maritime adventure of the period, but his monomaniacal quest to capture a British man-of-war ultimately cost him his ship and the lives of over two-thirds of his crew-a disgraceful end to a daring journey. A thrilling narrative of risk and ruin on the high seas, The Shining Sea brings to life one of the war's greatest tragedies, capturing Porter's immense hubris and his cataclysmic failure. "-- "After the outbreak of the War of 1812, David Porter, captain of the USS Essex and a veteran of the Quasi-War with France and the war with Tripoli, had orders to join two other American frigates so that the trio could attack British shipping in the South Atlantic. Instead Porter set off on an 18-month voyage to the Pacific in pursuit of fame and riches. Porter's quest for glory would ultimately cost him his ship and the lives of more than two-thirds of his crew, yet he was lauded as a hero upon his return to America. This book describes the most mythologized naval adventure of the War of 1812, and one of the conflict's most celebrated yet misunderstood military commanders, Captain David Porter"--